If you are in the crafts business and profitable, you are among the rare few who have successfully combined art with business. If you have yet to show a profit, the causes are usually identifiable.
Work out whether you are actually profitable
Most people who think they broke even did not, because they left things out.
Count all of it: table fee, travel, parking, accommodation if needed, food on the day, materials for everything you made, packaging, and your time – both making and the day itself.
Subtract from the takings. That number is the real one, and for a great many stallholders it is negative.
Doing this honestly for three shows tells you more than any advice.
The common causes of losing money
Wrong show. The most frequent. A show with the wrong audience will not sell your work however good it is. A craft fair attached to a village fete draws browsers; a dedicated craft market draws buyers.
Visit a show as a customer before booking a table. What is selling, at what price, and who is buying?
Underpricing. The second most frequent, and it feels like the solution rather than the problem.
Many stallholders price below their costs because they are comparing against others who are also not counting their time. Competing on price against people working for nothing is not winnable.
No low price point. Most sellers under-stock the cheap end and lose the impulse purchases that make up the volume. Have something at a few pounds.
Poor display. A flat table of goods sells far less than one with levels. Boxes under a cloth, clear pricing on everything, and a sign with your name visible from a distance.
Sitting down. Behind the table, looking at a phone, reads as closed. Stand, look approachable, greet people.
What to change
Fewer, better shows. Three good ones beat ten poor ones, and cost far less in fees and days.
Bring your own customers. Tell everyone you know where you will be. They arrive intending to buy.
Build an email list at every show. It is worth more than the day’s takings.
Make more of what sold and stop making what did not, however much you like it.
And consider whether shows are the right channel
Some work sells better online, and some makers do better from teaching, patterns or commissions than from selling finished items at all.
